Hardner
Hardner is the Captain of the Blue Guardians.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 206, Page 6 He was recruited by Iulius for Demon Card's plan. His Mother Dark Bring allows him to "restore" anything, including his missing arm, ruined buildings that had long since been leveled, the atmosphere after Haru tried a smoke screen, and all his opponents old wounds which they have ever suffered and is usually fatal (although it appears he has to touch the subject). He also carries a sword with a blunted tip since he prefers to slash off heads instead of stabbing people, thus earning the nickname "Executioner". After his defeat in volume 28, Lucia comes to take his mother DB and attempts to kill him as well. He aims to merge with Endless, to forget the incident of which killed all of his comrades, wife, and unborn child, which made him and his best friend the only survivors. Unknown to him, his unborn child was alive and raised up by his best friend. Hardner also tried all means to torture his daughter to reveal the hideout of which hid an ancient staff deep underground. Realizing what he had done to his own flesh and blood, Hardner broke down in defeat as Haru spares him, only to be stabbed in the back by Lucia to retrieve the mother DB piece. It is later revealed he survived the attack. Appearance Hardner is a pale, well-built man distinguished by his great height, a known trait of him,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 142, Page 7 which comes with very long limbs. He has an elongated, squared face with marked features and a mildly prominent nose, light azure eyes topped by thin eyebrows,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 206, Page 7 and a distinctive black tattoo covering his large forehead,Fairy Tail Manga: Chapter 130, Pages 4-5 this taking on an almost flat "V''" shape with two small spirals near each edge; something which makes it somewhat reminiscent of a pair of wings. As the Captain of the Blue Guardians, his azure hair is kept in a short cut, with a single tuft located on top of his head, going from its back to the forehead, jutting upwards; in the past, Hardner's hair was shown to be noticeably longer, with wavy strands of hair topping his head and protruding in every direction. Ever since his first days in the Blue Guardians, both of his relatively large earlobes have been adorned by simple, round metal earrings.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 212, Pages 5-6 During his first appearances, he retained the injury gained from the ship crash which caused the death of almost every Blue Guardian from the first generation, and which cost Hardner his left forearm:Rave Master Manga: Chapter 230, Pages 10-11 in its place, a large gun was present, secured to his stump. After such weapon's distruction, Hardner employed the powers of his Mother Dark Bring '''Anasthasis' to regrow his lost limb, thus having his arm restored to its original state.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 213, Pages 14-17 While he first appeared aboard the Albatross, Hardner also donned a simple pair of frameless glasses with square, purplish blue lenses; these, however, where destroyed when Belnika tried to assault him. When he was first introduced, Hardner donned a regal attire testifying his role as the leader of an organization whose power rivalled Demon Card's: he sported a light shirt with intricate, spiralling dark motifs and edges adorned by a succession of light and dark parts, paired with dark pants and footwear, with what looked like fur jutting outwards from the ankle area. Over his shirt was a light plate cuirass, which in its upper part had four belts secured by buttons, two on each side, meant to be connected to the massive, rounded blue pauldrons covering his shoulders, possessing light edges and being adorned by a white Blue Guardians' emblem. A wide, similarly colored armored collar was present around Hardner's neck, sporting a series of white hollow rhombs containing small black circles as decorations, with the addition of golden upper and lower edges, and hanging from his wide shoulders, covering the upper part of his pauldrons, was a long, light grey cape, which on its outer size bore a motifs similar to the one on his collar, with black rhombs and circles, and which was secured below the Captain's neck by a clasp which bore Anasthasis. An intricately decorated ring circled his right middle finger. After disembarking from the Albatross alongside Belnika, Hardner is shown wearing a much simpler outfit: his armor is replaced by a long, light coat reaching down below his knees, possessing a high and wide collar and cuffs covered in light fur, which alternates plain sections to parts adorned by various numbers of lines, making it look like the cloth is composed of bands joined together; below it, his garish shirt is replaced by a simple, plain dark one, sporting a partially open high collar, with a light sash circling Hardner's waist. The Captain retains his pants, footwear and cape, but the latter has visible epaulets added to it in correspondence to Hardner's shoulders. During his days in the Blue Guardians, he wore the group's signature high-collared jacket, light in color but possessing dark edges and dark stripes on the outer sleeves, ending in motifs reminiscent of spades, over a dark shirt bearing a light Blue Guardian symbol, and, again, dark pants and footwear. More instances had him wear jackets with similar designs, but lacking the motifs and bearing pockets,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 230, Pages 9-11 and in one of them he was also shown wearing a jacket with a similar design paired with a cape. Hardner's colorscheme.jpg|Hardner's color scheme on the Cover of Chapter 130. Hardener.jpeg|Hardner's first outfit. Hardner's second Outfit.jpg|Hardner's second outfit. Personality During his days in the original Blue Guardians, Hardner used to be a friendly and cheerful individual, a happy-go-lucky air pirate racing across the sky with his comrades and searching for treasures. However, the incident which caused the death of his wife Sophia and the seeming demise of the unborn child she had in her womb took its toll on him: Hardner started travelling alone,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 230, Pages 9-14 and, eventually, changed. As the Captain of the refounded Blue Guardians, Hardner is shown to be ruthless and cruel, brutalizing and insulting subordinates of him as close as Lunar,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 212, Pages 10-11 and being willing to make people suffer to achieve his goals, such as when he forced Belnika to do as he wished by torturing Jerry Bourne,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 212, Pages 16-17 even going on to make sadistic remarks and rejoice at Belnika's despair.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 213, Pages 5-6 He was also willing to shoot his best friend from the old days, Yuma Ansect, in the head, subsequently going on to gloat about the seeming killing.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 213, Pages 22-23 He seems to enjoy toying with his foes, appearing in front of the Rave Warriors when they boarded the Albatross and teasingly pretending to show off his etiquette of Captain by introducing himself, subsequently informing the intruders of Makai's incoming destruction.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 508, Pages 5-12 He has also developed a certain fascination with the concept of decapitation, wielding a sword with a blunt tip, which he refers to as the Executioner's Sword, whose solely purpose, according to him, is to behead opponents,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 216, Pages 11-12 and often remarking about enemies' incoming "executions" at his hands before assaulting them.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 217, Pages 4-5Rave Master Manga: Chapter 225, Page 9 In addition, he believes that Mother Dark Bring Anasthasis has chosen him to be its owner, and his possession of it makes Hardner think of himself as immortal,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 217, Pages 11-15 referring to himself as the "warrior that possesses an undying body".Rave Master Manga: Chapter 222, Page 5 He also gets extremely upset and enraged every time someone tries to hinder his path towards Endless,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 215, Pages 14-15 losing his cool and frantically assaulting the responsible.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 228, Pages 3-4 Hardner gave several explanations for his wish to summon forth Endless in Makai, something which would have caused the latter world's end.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 208, Pages 9-10 At first, he made claim that he wanted the creature to reduce the world to nothingness in order to satisfy his extreme greed, which was so great that Hardner desired things such as the sky and the ocean for himself (such first reason was also hinted during his younger years in the Blue Guardians); he even went on to declare destruction the "ultimate creation", stating that "as everything is lost, everything is gained".Rave Master Manga: Chapter 216, Pages 5-7 Hardner revealed that such goal was to be achieved through the use of the Altar of Birth, which would have first fused him with an user of Etherion (which Hardner saw first in Belnika,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 206, Page 10 and later, after the latter was revealed to lack the power,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 216, Pages 18-19 in Elie),Rave Master Manga: Chapter 217, Pages 19-20 and then would have made him and Endless as one, turning the Captain into a god.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 217, Pages 16-17 Hardner's real goal, however, was just to forget the terrible accident which had taken his wife and unborn child's lives (though the latter was revealed to have survived), an event which he could never get rid of and which kept tormenting him, with him unable to vent his wrath or put an end to his pain.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 230, Page 17 The Captain believed that Endless, as the "king of oblivion", could have realized that single wish of him.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 230, Page 14 Following his defeat at Haru Glory's hands and the announcement that his daughter Nagisa survived the accident, having been subsequently raised by Yuma Ansect as his daughter,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 231, Pages 3-4 Hardner seems to have returned to his former personality, tearfully thanking Yuma, ackowledged again as his best friend, for raising her, and asking him to keep watching over her, at the same time accepting the fact that Nagisa will never know him as his real father, and just being happy that his child is alive.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 233, Pages 15-16 Abilities and Powers The Captain of the Blue Guardians, Hardner is a powerful and experienced air pirate commanding an immense fleet of flying battleships, ruling them from his flagship, the gargantuan flying fortress Albatross.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 206, Pages 13-15 The number of soldiers under his command, according to his own words, ranks into millions, and his group was acnowledged as the most dangerous one out of the three formed after Demon Card's temporary downfall (namely Doryu Ghost Attack Squad, Onigami and Blue Guardians itself), having defeated 136 other teams.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 79, Page 7 His use of a Mother Dark Bring,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 142, Page 7 alongside his own skills and his years of fighting experience, make him a fearsome opponent, who was shown capable of fighting pair-to-pair with Haru Glory, the Second Rave Master, even managing to momentarily overwhelm him,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 228, Page 7 as well as of defeating Let Dahaka, one of the strongest exponents of the Dragon Race.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 126, Page 11 Highly Perceptive Combatant: One of Hardner's most valuable assets is his long experience on the battlefield, which has granted him sharp senses and an analytical mind able to examine enemy tactics and react accordingly (though this seems to partially give out when he becomes enraged). He referred to the smokescreen which Haru Glory generated with his Explosion sword as a "childish antique" before nullifying it with his Anasthasis.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 216, Page 10 His knowledge, as evident of his role, also includes airships, as shown when he could deduce that one of the Blue Guardians' ships nearing the Albatross didn't belong to his group simply by hearing its engine's sound.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 207, Page 8 Enhanced Strength: A seasoned fighter, Hardner has displayed a considerable amount of physical strength: when swinging around his Executioner's Blade with a single hand, the force of his slashes is high enough for him to cut down objects which are away from the physical reach of the blade through sheer air pressure,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 216, Page 12 managing to slice off more than one thing several meters away from him.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 217, Page 6 When wielding his sword with both hands, Hardner is shown able to generate very large and damaging bursts of air,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 224, Page 7 as well as to cut through rock, generating small shockwaves.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 229, Page 12 His defense is just as strong, with him parrying a downward slash from Haru Glory's Explosion sword without stepping backwards.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 226, Page 15 Hardner's strength is not limited to his use of the sword, as shown when he could punch Let Dahaka, a strong and resistant member of the Dragon Race, knocking him to the ground.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 225, Page 8 Enhanced Reflexes: Hardner's speed and reflexes have been honed to a great extent by his experiences on the battlefield, and they allow him to rapidly react to attacks, as well as to perform his own attacks fast enough to overwhelm his opponents. He was shown easily avoiding a surprise assault from Yuma Ansect, who suddenly came crushing through one of the Albatross' windows,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 213, Pages 8-9 and could momentarily outdo Haru Glory in terms of speed, peforming an impressive barrage of slashes which Haru couldn't keep up with.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 228, Page 4 Master Melee Combatant: A veteran air pirate, Hardner possesses great mastery in melee fighting. He has shown to possess specialist skills in swordsmanship, being shown fighting on equal terms with an accomplished swordsman such as Haru Glory for a lengthy amount of time. His blows are noted to be both extremely strong and fast, and he's shown capable of flawlessly parrying and deflecting rapid barrages of enemy assaults.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 229, Page 2 Hardner usually wields his blade with a single hand, placing his other hand on the hilt only when he wants to perform particularly strong attacks, and relies solely on slashes, due to his signature Executioner's Blade lacking a sharp tip which could be used for lunges. While favoring the use of his advanced swordplay, Hardner has proven himself to be a proficient hand-to-hand combatant, capable of packing strong punches and kicks: he was shown attacking and hurting an expert martial artist such as Let Dahaka even without the aid of his sword, and is able to effectively combine swordsmanship and unarmed blows during battle. Weapons Hardner was shown employing a number of weapons to strike his foes. During his first appearance, the Captain hadn't yet used his Mother Dark Bring Anasthasis to restore his left hand and forearm, which were lost during the accident which cost most of the first Blue Guardians' generation their lives, and to his stump was secured a gun, acting like a prosthesis of sort. This consisted entirely of metal, and possessed a long barrel secured via a larger semispherical part to a cylindrical section which connected it to the stump. Such firearm fired massive bullets,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 213, Page 11 generating a notably large amount of smoke for its barrel at every shot.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 206, Pages 6-8 The cylindrical part was shown to be concave, housing wires and mechanisms which presumably allowed Hardner to fire it despite no trigger being visible anywhere. It was destroyed by a slash from Yuma Ansect's axe; something which prompted Hardner to regrow his lost limb through the use of Anasthasis. After his hand's regeneration, Hardner was shown employing a smaller, handheld firearm to shoot Yuma. This produced a much more reduced amount of smoke, and possessed a smaller barrel, implying it to be of a lesser caliber than the former one. Hardner's signature melee weapon is the Executioner's Blade, a massive, very long sword fitting the Captain's own size. It possesses a cross handguard, with the central part, bearing a bolt on each side, protruding a bit on the rectangular section connecting it to the blade, a hilt bearing a thin metal section crossing its length vertically, with diagonal lines placed at both sides, and a round pommel, adorned by a smaller, similarly rounded part on its outer edge.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 225, Pages 9-11 References Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Humans Category:Dark Bring users Category:Blue Guardians Category:Manga only characters Category:Needs Help